Not A Mega Church? Building a Youth Ministry that Lasts no matter what size Church you are!

8Jun/100

Summer Idea: Partner with Other Ministries or Churches

Last year I posted about the benefits of partnering with other ministries and Churches (click here to read it).  Partnering with others has benefited our ministry greatly over the years.

As summer is fast approaching, it is not too late to be planning activities. In particular, it is not too late to be planning activities with other Churches or ministries.  Here are 3 reasons why you should partner with other ministries over the summer:

  • It provides a critical mass. As you know summer is filled with camps, summer school, vacations and other activities that take students away. That means typical "Youth Group" and youth group events are much smaller than usual.  By partnering with other ministries, you are opening up the door for more students to come out to whatever you choose to do.  Having that critical mass definitely provides a more exciting environment for all the students who do come out.
  • It promotes the body of Christ. The Body of Christ is not just limited to your Church or ministry.  It includes all believers.  By joining forces with another ministry over the summer for some events (please note, not all events, just a few), it shows your students that God is bigger than just your group.  It can open up opportunities for them to meet new friends and even see people from their school that they didn't know were believers or not. By combining groups occasionally during the summer, this promotes fellowship, unity and accountability in the body of Christ.
  • It gives you a break. By partnering with others, it provides an opportunity for you to not have full ownership of an event or program.  You can actually have a break from programming and planning!  For example, you can rotate your meeting around to different Churches or sites where that particular Youth Leadership Team provides all the programming and resources for the night.  If that happens, all you have to do is to show up and bring students.  If you can do this, you get a break and can focus on some other things that need to be addressed that week.

I believe partnering with other ministries and Churches over the summer is a huge win-win for everyone involved.  Who knows, if it turns out to be a success, this might pave the way for future partnerships over the course of the year.

So right now, TAKE A MINUTE and think about this idea of partnering with other Churches this summer.  Are there any opportunities for you to do that?  If so, target a few Churches and give them a call to try to organize.  At the very least, you might be able to develop relationships with some new youth pastors because of it.

Also, if you have a thought or idea that you have seen work in regards to this topic, post a comment so we can all benefit!

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5Apr/108

3 Reasons to do a Summer Program

Do you have a summer program for your youth?

Every Church I have visited or worked at has different philosophies about summer program planning. Basically, I feel that the major conflict with summer programming is that with vacations, camps and all the non-routine schedules of summer, is it worth it to do a program for the youth? For me, the simple answer to me is YES! Here are 3 reasons why:

  1. It keeps consistency and stability in place. For instance, when I first started at Cedar Run, I was strongly encouraged to take the summers off and rest as the previous Youth Pastor did. As appealing as that sounded (and looking back on that, it sounded way too good to be true), I did not have that same mentality. I felt that in order to build a strong youth program, we needed consistency and regularity - not time off. So, we scaled back a little of what we did but we kept a consistent weekly youth time and did some special events like go into DC or have some BBQs. Nothing really formal, but we were consistent and students knew that if they were in town, there was something that was probably happening at Cedar Run.
  2. It provides different ideas for you to try out without the pressure of failure. As I mentioned above, with all the vacations and camp trips students are involved in, you should expect smaller numbers. Therefore, try some new ideas geared towards smaller groups.  Do BBQs, water parks or day trips and have fun with whoever shows up.
  3. It is a great outreach opportunity.  Because you can try new events during the summer that you couldn't do during the year, there may be something you can do (i.e., going to the water park) that might open the door for one of your students to invite a non-believing friend.  Less threatening events such as the water park can be very inviting for a non-believer to come to rather than to go to Bible Study or traditional youth group.  Then, hopefully, this would be a great bridge event for that student to start coming to youth group or a Bible Study.

What do you think? Should youth programs continue over the summer or shut down? Post a comment on your thoughts.

Also, if you have had a cool creative summer idea or event that has been really successful, post it so that we may all benefit and possibly get a new idea for the summer.


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24Jul/090

Follow Up after Trips

I just got back from one of our best, if not the best, youth mission trip we have ever done at Cedar Run. I saw God do some amazing things as He pushed and challenged our students in their faith, in how they view others and the blessings they have been given.  And, I saw Him bring together students who did not know each other well.   It was a great experience.

As I have posted before, mission trips are just one of the 4 different types of summer camping: outreach, discipleship, mission trips and high adventure trips.  I believe that there is no right or wrong choice; it just depends on what your intention is and where you want to take your students.  The bigger question that we need to ask ourselves comes after you get back from the trip. That question is how do you capitalize on what God did during that trip?  No matter what kind of trip you go on, you usually come back with students who grew in their faith and are now in closer community with each other.  So, what do you do with them so that you can build off of the momentum and encourage them in Christ while inspiring others to do likewise?  Here are a few suggestions that came to mind.

How do you capitalize?

For starters, you could do a Post-Trip Gathering.  Young Life does a great job with this.  After every summer camp they go to, within 3 weeks, they do a Post-Trip Gathering in which they have invite everyone who went (and their parents) to a dessert or cook.  Then, they show a slide show or video of the trip and then have a few students share about how that experience changed their life.  It is a fantastic way to reinvigorate the students as they reflect on the memories they made and hear about how real life change happened during that time away.  This can be the perfect prelude to introducing a summer time Bible study or inviting the to come back to Church to hear about your latest message sequence.

Another idea is to create a month long Discipleship Follow Up. Often times, students come back from trips on a spiritual high, but return to the realities of the world where they can be spiritually discouraged and crushed – a clear momentum killer.  When they return from a trip, even though they are on these highs, many times they are not equipped or prepared for the realities of the world.  A great way to counter this is to have something already planned out where you can continue to bring the students together and unite and encourage them in Christ.  There are many different ways you can go about this.  Some examples are to invite them to Church, a small group Bible Study, a study designed just for those who are coming back from camp, etc.  By doing this, students can stay on fire for the Lord by getting spiritually fed.  Even though the realities of their lives will impact them to some degree, they will know that there is Truth waiting for them just right around the corner.

You could also build off of the momentum and excitement of the camp trip by spending time at each Sunday morning or at your evening program talking about it. For instance, you can have 1 person each week for a month share about their experience and how it impacted their life.  This way you are indirectly promoting your trip for next year by showing others that life change does happen and that those who didn’t go on the trip missed out on a unique experience.  It also keeps the memories and experiences fresh in their minds and encourages everyone that they can impact and help others for Christ in the local community.

The last and maybe most important key here is to include everyone. This past year, I was very pleased to take 22 students with us on our mission trip.  Although that is a solid number, that represents just about 25% of our total youth program.  If you truly want to capitalize on a powerful experience, you have to include everyone in your group and make them feel that they are still important and can contribute to the youth program in some way.

TAKE A MINUTE and…

  1. Recall past post-camp experiences.  What made that time a success in building  off the camp trip and what were some misses that prevented you from in building from your experience?
  2. What can you do this summer to help capitalize and build upon so this coming year can be one of your best trips ever?

Know this, it’s not too late!  Even if you already did you trip earlier in the summer, you can still capitalize on this trip.  If you don’t have a follow up strategy for your trip already, come up with one so you can build upon this and bring more students into a more mature relationship with Christ.

Questions, thoughts or experiences?  Feel free to post them so we can be encouraging each other.

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